Oct 10, 2016 Tha fabled Taj Mahal Casino will be closing its doors after Labor Day: this time, for good (source: trumptaj.com) Twenty six years A quarter of a century and then some: that’s how long the Taj Mahal Casino has been in operation, employing thousands of people and witnessing countless stories of gambling. Some of them were great, no doubt, others not so much, but this fabled casino has. Carl Icahn wasn’t joking about closing the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. Icahn will be chalking up the “investment” as a $100 million loss. Thousands of jobs will be lost and the.
Former employees hug early in the morning outside the closing Trump Taj Mahal, Monday, Oct. 10, 2016, in Atlantic City, N.J. Nearly 3,000 workers were laid off amid the hotel's closure. (AP)
Donald Trump opened his Trump Taj Mahal casino 26 years ago, calling it 'the eighth wonder of the world.'
But his friend and fellow billionaire Carl Icahn closed it Monday morning, making it the fifth casualty of Atlantic City's casino crisis.
The sprawling Boardwalk casino, with its soaring domes, minarets and towers built to mimic the famed Indian palace, shut down at 5:59 a.m., having failed to reach a deal with its union workers to restore health care and pension benefits that were taken away from them in bankruptcy court.
Nearly 3,000 workers lost their jobs, bringing the total jobs lost by Atlantic City casino closings to 11,000 since 2014.
Picketers affixed an anti-Icahn poster that they had signed to the casino's main Boardwalk entrance door. It proclaimed 'We held the line.'
'We held the line against a billionaire taking from us!' said Marc Scittina, a food service worker at the Taj Mahal's player's club since shortly after it opened in 1990. 'This battle has been going on for two years.'
The union went on strike July 1, and Icahn decided to shut the place down a little over a month later, determining there was 'no path to profitability.'
The Taj Mahal becomes the fifth Atlantic City casino to go out of business since 2014, when four others, including Trump Plaza, shut their doors.
But this shutdown is different: it involves a casino built by the Republican candidate for president, who took time out from the campaign trail to lament its demise.
'I felt they should have been able to make a deal,' Trump told The Associated Press in a recent interview. 'It's hard to believe they weren't able to make a deal.'
Chuck Baker, a cook at the Taj Mahal since the day it opened in April 1990, was on the picket line outside the casino at the moment it shut down. He was here when the doors opened in April 1990 and wanted to be there when they closed as well.
He led a moment of silence among the otherwise rowdy 200 or so picketers on the Boardwalk outside the casino 'before we shut down Taj Mahal.'
'This didn't have to happen,' he said. 'To (Icahn), it's all just business. But to us, it's destroying our livelihoods and our families. You take away our health care, our pensions and overload the workers, we just can't take it.'
Bob McDevitt, president of Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union, said virtually all of the striking workers feel the same way.
'Everybody has their Popeye moment: 'That's all I can stands; I can't stands no more,' ' he said. 'The workers made a choice that they weren't going to accept benefits and terms of employment worse than everyone else's. I applaud them: for the first time in 30 years, workers stood up to Carl Icahn and made him throw in the towel.'
Icahn reached his own Popeye moment on Aug. 3, when he determined the $350 million he had lost investing in, and then owning, the Taj Mahal was enough. It was then that he decided to close the casino, fearing he would lose an additional $100 million next year.
'Today is a sad day for Atlantic City,' he said Monday. 'Like many of the employees at the Taj Mahal, I wish things had turned out differently.'
The union reached contracts on June 30 with four of the five casinos it had targeted for a possible strike — including the Tropicana, which Icahn also owns. It granted negotiation extensions to three others: the Borgata, Resorts and the Golden Nugget. McDevitt said talks with the Borgata will begin this month, followed closely by the remaining two.
The Taj Mahal joins the Atlantic Club, Showboat, Trump Plaza and Revel in the growing club of Atlantic City casinos that, since 2014, have succumbed to economic pressure brought about in large measure by competition from casinos in neighboring states. The city now will have seven casinos.
Later Monday, newly unemployed former Taj Mahal workers were to begin signing up for unemployment benefits and temporary help with utility payments at a union-run resource center at a nearby hotel.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Donald Trump built the Taj Mahal casino and once called it “the eighth wonder of the world.”
The Republican candidate in the race for the presidency — who took his Atlantic City casinos through bankruptcy four times — minced no words about Monday’s shutdown of the gambling hall.
“There’s no reason for this,” Trump told The Associated Press in a recent interview as his friend and fellow billionaire Carl Icahn prepared to close the casino.
Just before 6 a.m. Monday, the Taj Mahal shuttered its doors amid a strike by union members that lasted more than 100 days. It is the fifth Atlantic City casino to close since 2014.
Trump said both sides should have been able to work out a deal to keep the casino open. Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union went on strike July 1, after it could not agree with Icahn on a new contract to restore health insurance and pension benefits that were terminated two years ago in bankruptcy court.
Icahn decided on Aug. 3 to close the casino, saying it lacked a “path to profitability.”
Taj Mahal Casino Wiki
And now, Trump said, it’s too late.
“Once it closes, it’s too expensive to ever reopen it,” he said.
Yet that option is exactly what the union’s president, Bob McDevitt, and many striking workers suspect might happen.
McDevitt said “there’s a strong possibility” that Icahn will keep the casino closed over the winter while conducting renovations and capital improvements, then attempt to reopen it in the spring as a non-union facility. McDevitt said union job actions including picketing and a campaign to get convention groups to patronize other Atlantic City casinos would immediately resume if the Taj attempts to reopen without a union contract.
When asked about McDevitt’s comments, Icahn spokesman Andrew Langham said: “Ask him whether the other four casinos he’s closed ever reopened.”
In August, just days after Icahn announced the closure plans, work crews repaired parts of the casino’s facade and Boardwalk entry ways. The company said that those repairs needed to be done regardless of whether the casino is open or closed.
The closure of the sprawling Boardwalk casino, with its soaring domes, minarets and towers built to mimic the famed Indian historic site, cost nearly 3,000 workers their jobs, bringing the total jobs lost by Atlantic City casino closings to 11,000 since 2014. Atlantic City now has seven casinos.
More than a dozen striking workers interviewed Monday said they did the right thing by walking out. Tina Condos, a cocktail server at the casino since its opening, seemed triumphant despite the loss of her job.
“We stood up to a billionaire and told him we wouldn’t take it,” she said. “I hope it gives him pause before he tries to come in and do this to anyone else. We feel like we succeeded here.”
Rose Hall, yet another Day One employee, cleaned rooms at the casino hotel.
Taj Mahal Casino Closing Day 2016
“I gave most of my adult life to this place,” she said. “I had to pay for health care out of my own pocket, and if you don’t think that’s expensive, you haven’t looked. I lost my fiancee to cancer just when medical insurance came off the table for us.”
She, too, has no regrets about the decision to go on strike to reclaim the same standard of living that workers at the city’s other casinos enjoy.
“I’m angry about what’s happened, but I’m not sad about what we did,” she said. “I’m at peace with myself.”
McDevitt said union members had what he termed “their Popeye moment: ‘That’s all I can stands; I can’t stands no more,’” he said. “For the first time in 30 years, workers stood up to Carl Icahn and made him throw in the towel.”
Langham had a different take.
“McDevitt stated that he applauds the workers for standing up to Icahn,” Langham said. “Workers have lost their jobs, but McDevitt continues to receive his six-figure salary. It’s no wonder he keeps applauding.”
Icahn determined the $350 million he had lost in the Taj Mahal was enough. It was then that he decided to close, fearing he would lose an additional $100 million next year.
“Today is a sad day for Atlantic City,” he said Monday. “Like many of the employees at the Taj Mahal, I wish things had turned out differently.”
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